“You f*cking outsider!

Sengou’s face twisted itself from anger, furiously kicking Andariel in the stomach causing him to fly away like a cannon ball, hitting the walls of the settlement outside the arena. Now, the wall was decorated with a distinct human indent. And as he fell down and hit the ground, cracks began to spread, and a part of the wall collapsed into thousand of stone fragments, some even turning into fine dust.

“My rib…” Andariel silently groaned under his breath. Some of his ribs were broken and he most likely had several internal injuries. He tried to stand up, only to discover that he had no force left. Was this his end?”

Hearing footsteps, he understood that Sengou was near, and that he had to do something. Quickly at that. But no matter how hard he thought, nothing came to his mind. He had no idea how to save himself. Was there nothing he could do?

He felt hands gripping his clothes, and the world around him spun, and he was tossed up in the air like a bag flour.

“Bam!”

Hitting the hard concrete floor made him spurt out even more blood. His vision was beginning to fade. He heard the same footsteps again.

F*ck! No, I cannot give up!

“I won’t giv…” His voice toned down, and his head crashed into the the ground. He had lost consciousness, everything had become black and quiet.

Sengou laughed and went forward to the now unconscious Andariel.

“Well, It was fun while it lasted~!” Musing to himself, he punched down with thick thick, trunk like arm toward Andariel’s head, clearly aiming for the kill.

“If you do that, I will kill you.”

Sengou felt himself stop. He couldn’t even move his body in the slightest. In front of him, an older man covered in a purple robe with golden engravings of dragons appeared like a ghost.

“Esteemed elder…!” a chill went through his spine, this was an elder, and elder of the highest degree. There were four kinds of elders; outer elder, inner elder, core elder and top elder, that corresponded to the disciples. This was a top elder, usually only seen inside the settlement’s palace where he taught the top disciples.

“Get lost.” The elder flashed his sleeve, and an invisible wind pulled Sengou along and threw him high up in the air, letting him fall down a bit away from the arena.

The elder looked at the young boy, grabbed him under one of his arms and turned around to the crowd still standing there with dumbfounded expression adorned to their faces

“I will let this matter pass. You should bury the dead before they begin to stink.

He transformed into a multicolored rainbow, disappearing in the horizon.

Close to the Blackrock mountains, to the west of the Sen clan's settlement, there was a small cabin. Inside the cabin there were four rooms and in one of the rooms, a young boy was lying on a bed. His black hair was colored crimson from dried blood and he had a bandage covering his chest.

After a while, the boy’s eyelids twitched and he slowly opened them only to become slightly confused. This was not the arena. Andariel tried to get up from bed but to his demise, wasn’t able to move more than his fingers. “Where am I…? Where is little grey?”

It wasn’t until a few hours later that he could rise from the bed. Using nearby things to hold himself steady, he tried to make his way in the cabin. Exiting the room with the bed, he came out to a large living room where he felt the smell of food. His mouth began to produce saliva.

“Oh, you woke up quite quickly.”

Andariel hopped from the ground and immediately entered a fighting position. Not only did it made him groan in pain, but also earn a light laughter from the older man coming into view.

“Who are you?” he asked the older man.

The older man laughed, “Depends on who is asking.”

Andariel.” Andariel introduced himself, “Who might senior be?”

“Don’t worry, you will find out sooner or later.” the old man revealed a smile and gestured for Andariel to take some food, “I made some congee for us. The perfect food before a discussion. Serve yourself.”

Andariel heard his stomach making low growling sounds. “Thank you.”

Hurriedly taking a bowl from the shelves, he poured up from congee for himself and sat down to the table followed by the old man. For minutes, they ate in silence, just enjoying the peaceful bliss granted by food.

“So boy, what were you doing fighting a third stage gatherer? That just looks like suicide for me.” the older man put down his spoon and leaned back on his chair.

Andariel shrugged his shoulder, “I wanted to go pass the exam. But the outer disciple was extremely vile and cruel to those wanting to try their luck. I became angry and lost self control.”

The older man nodded, “And after?”

“I decided to cripple him. People doing these cruel acts like murdering for fun aren’t right in their head. If I crippled him I would have done the island a favor. But instead his damn brother showed up…”

“And he was too strong for you?” the older man asked.

Andariel sighed, “Yeah. He was at the third stage. I knew that words weren’t going to help me, so I decided to at least give out a fight. But in the end, I got my ass kicked. Well. Even if I could repeat it, I would do the same.”

“Honestly, that was very stupid done.” the older man said, “but at the same time, like it. I would have done the same. To stand up for one’s principles it the most courageous one can do. Its one of the qualities that can take you far on the road of cultivation.

Andariel blinked, surprised by what the old man said, “Thank you.”

“Boy.” the old man smiled, “Why do you cultivate? What is your goal, what do you strive after? Glory? Riches, or maybe beauties?”

Andariel pondered for a while, then answered, “I don’t know actually. I was going to tell you to become the strongest, but I don’t really know. I feel like it’s the only think that I can do, as if to not cultivate it to die. Do you understand me?”

“Hmm.” the older man frowned, “Let me rephrase my question, why do you want to become strong?”

This time it took longer for Andariel to answer.

“It feels as if though I have something that I must do. I don’t know what, I just know that there is something out there waiting for me and that I have to become strong before I can go out can get it. Therefore, I shall become strong.”

The old man burst out in laughter, “Good, good, I like it. I have heard many answers, but no one have ever answered my so vaguely. But at the same time, yours is the one I like best.

“I am old man Meng.” he introduced himself.

Just as Andariel was about to go grab some more congee to eat he was interrupted as old man Meng called out his name.

“Let me ask you something?”, old man Meng suddenly asked, his eyes very serious as he posed the question, “Do you want to become my disciple?”

“Huh?” Andariel was stunned. This old man wanted to take him in as a disciple? They had just met, didn’t it seem a bit strange“Why?”

“I have roamed this world for a very long time. I have been to the main continent and I have seen countless of renius rise and fall. But you are different than them. You don’t have enormous sects standing behind you. Yet, you are able to defeat a second stager who used his pressure exertion with only your body and skill.”

“Come, let me show you something.” old man said and rose form the table. Andariel, still a bit stunned, followed the man out of the cottage.

“Look.” old man meng pointed at a big, thick oak. Then flicked his fingers, “boom!”

Andariel gaped. The tree with more than a three meter thick tree trunk exploded in millions of pieces. There was absolutely nothing left of the tree after the explosion occurring.

“Do you want to become strong?” old man Meng turned around to him, “If you become my disciple, I will teach you how to get revenge on that third stager and much more. I will allow you to become stronger than what you could ever imagine. Of course, it depends on yourself as well.”

“Yes.” Andariel instantly decided to recognize this old man as master. This was a chance in a million. Not only was the man strong, but he also had a very nice personality. He kowtowed three times, “Your disciple greets you, master.”

“Haha, very good.” old man Meng laughed, “Now, let’s go inside, there is still some more congee to eat up. When we're at it, I shall explain the basic of cultivation for you since I bet you don’t know everything that is needed.